You order a gift. You pay for it. You expect it to arrive safely. But you aren’t really in charge of the delivery. And when it’s the holidays, the stakes are high.
A woman from the United Kingdom said her Christmas present of over £2,000 ($2,700) was thrown at her doorstep by a courier and damaged as a result. Her ring camera recorded the incident on video, so she thought her refund request would be straightforward.
But the rude customer service was having none of it and refused to help.
Before Christmas, delivery drivers are like Santa’s busy helpers
But this woman says hers acted more like the Grinch
The customer support team sided with the driver and refused to help her
But after the woman uploaded a video of the incident to social media, the company suddenly changed its mind and sent in a representative
This is just one example of why so many people dread the holiday season
According to a new survey, 54% of us fear the inevitable approach of the holidays due to the financial demands that come with them.
Seven in ten (69%) say the holiday season is the most financially stressful part of the year.
Because of this, Christmas doesn’t always feel that festive: 58% claim the stress and financial obligations of the holidays take the joy out of it.
So while anger—and even rage—might be understandable in a situation like this at any time, the fact that it happened right before the holidays only makes the whole ordeal that much more absurd.
Poor delivery service is fairly common
Last year, people in the UK — where this woman is from — sent and received a record 4.2 billion parcels, which was 7% more than the year before and even higher than the pandemic peak of 4 billion in 2020/21.
Current data shows that British consumers’ overall satisfaction with parcel deliveries is reasonably high, at 78% — unchanged from the previous year. But every once in a while, something happens that shakes that trust.
The numbers reveal that over two thirds (68%) experienced a delivery issue in the past six months alone.
Overall, the most common problems reported are delivery delays (28%), parcels being left in an inappropriate location (26%), delivery drivers not knocking loudly enough (20%), and not being given sufficient time to answer the door (19%).
People report that parcels were damaged 15% of the time.
When comparing individual parcel companies’ performance, Amazon and FedEx topped the poll with a satisfaction score of 57%, followed closely by UPS and DHL at 55%. The worst performers were Yodel (38%) and Evri (31%).
We couldn’t verify which company this woman was dealing with.